Page 65 of Revenge & Ruin

“No thanks to you.”

She tuts. “Again, I didn’t ask you to follow me.”

“You wouldn’t have stood a chance against them on your own, so stop pretending I didn’t do you a favor.”

“You know it’s funny, but I’ve actually handled myself just fine these last two weeks without you.”

Ice-cold fear strikes me straight through the heart. I left her alone. Anything could have happened, and I wouldn’t have been there. “Have they?—”

“No,” she cuts me off quickly before letting her smile broaden, “but you should have seen your face. Honestly, Teo. I thought you were smart enough not to show your hand.”

We’re thankfully interrupted by the arrival of the champagne, and I take the pause to collect myself.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

“You’re allowed to, you know,” she says lightly, taking her glass after the server disappears. “Want me, that is. I wore this dress for you, after all. I thought you might appreciate it.”

It takes every shred of my willpower not to let my gaze drop to her plunging neckline and the golden chains that dangle in it. Temptation incarnate.

“You assume my desire is for you and not the possibility of destroying your family,” I hiss out instead.

“Can it not be both?”

I grab my glass just to do something with my hands. I could deny it, but she knows exactly what she’s doing here. Admitting it won’t change the situation in any way and will only add fuel to the rumors that are likely already circulating the room.

“She’s very pretty,” she says suddenly.

I follow her gaze to the main stage, where Danny has just finished another song. I watch for a moment as she waves delicately out at the crowd.

Isabella is scratching her arm when I look back at her. A nervous tic, perhaps?

“If I agree, would you be jealous?”

She smirks at this. “That depends.”

“On what?”

“Whether you’ve fucked her against a mirror as well.”

My grip tightens around the stem of my glass. I raise it to my mouth to buy myself time.

I don’t know exactly what it is that makes me hesitate. A gut feeling, perhaps. But that split second is enough time for Isabella’s gaze to dart to my glass.

With one tiny glance, the entire setup is revealed to me. The dress, the flirting, the distraction.

Whatever now resides in my glass is something she is very anxious for me to consume.

I swirl the liquid around some, pretending to be lost in thought, before placing it back down. “You’re the only person I’ve even thought about in weeks.”

My confession seems to alarm her. Good.

“Then why did you stop following me?”

The question is far more vulnerable than the last.

“Perhaps I needed to let you go. Perhaps whatever this is between us is too dangerous to remain unchecked.”

Her chocolate eyes find the tablecloth, and her blonde hair cascades over her shoulder. “So this is done then, is it?”

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